Appalachian Midwifery

10/09/2025

10/08/2025

An incredible new study found that pregnant women who consume just 6 dates a day in the 4 weeks leading up to their due date were 74% more dilated upon their arrival to the hospital, had a 77% shorter first stage of labor and a 42% lower rate of caesarean sections.

Eating dates in the late stages of pregnancy lead to higher cervical dilation upon hospital admission because the fruit contains nutrients that influence oxytocin receptors, preparing the cervix and uterus for labor by increasing muscle response to oxytocin and other labor-supporting hormones. Dates are a rich source of energy from natural sugars and fats and also contain prostaglandins, which contribute to cervical ripening. Additionally, they provide serotonin, calcium, and tannins, which contribute to powerful uterine contractions.

Eating dates in the late stages of pregnancy shortens the first stage of labor due to their ability to stimulate the production of prostaglandins, which promote cervical ripening (softening and thinning of the cervix) and increase uterine contractions. Dates also contain tannins, which have a similar effect, and provide a natural sugar source for energy during labor. Some studies even suggest that dates can increase uterine sensitivity to oxytocin, leading to more effective contractions and a quicker and smoother labor process.

These actions are also the exact reason why women who eat dates in the late stages of pregnancy and far less likely to need a c-section!

The most common recommendation is for women to begin eating 6 dates a day starting in their 37th week of pregnancy.
PMID: 40322306, 21280989

SEE ALSO: https://www.pelvicphysio.co.nz/the-sweet-secret-to-a-smoother-labour-dates

10/06/2025

This gave me full body chills...
"👁️ Did you ever wonder why the baby’s taken across the room? Why the cord is clamped fast, the mother left shaking, the lights so bright it feels like judgment?

Did you ever feel the stillness—the eerie quiet when the father’s hands are empty, the grandmother’s not in the room, and the newborn is nowhere near a breast?

It’s not just medicine.
It’s not just policy.
It’s a ritual.
And it’s not ours.

🧬 They inject pig-derived Pitocin to mimic the hormone God designed to flood a woman’s brain in labor. But it doesn’t reach the brain. It only contracts the body.
The love doesn’t flow.
The imprint doesn’t land.
The bonding doesn’t seal.
Just pressure. Just force.

💉 Synthetic love.
⚡ Counterfeit release.
🧠 Neurological silence.

And while the woman is watched but not touched, while the baby is wiped but not suckled, while the father is praised for being “supportive” but not leading—
they cut the thread.

👶 The mother-baby dyad was made to reflect divine intimacy. To pass down trust, peace, protection.
But when it’s broken—
the body remembers.
The child stores the grief.
The mother learns disconnection.
The father fades from view.

That’s how it starts. But it doesn’t end there.

Then come the bottles.
The cribs.
The high chairs.
The eight-hour separations called school.
The praise of independence that is really just early detachment.
The lie that the nuclear family is enough. That Mom runs the home. That Dad is just for weekends. That children are safest raised by strangers in buildings funded by gods they do not know.

🕳️ We are not looking at broken systems.
We are looking at precision-engineered fragmentation.

And you feel it. You’ve felt it all along.
That something was taken before you could name it.
That someone was missing even while you were being told you had “everything you need.”

But listen: the lie only wins if we let it.
And we won’t.
We are pulling the babies back to the breast.
We are restoring the mother's voice in the birth room.
We are putting grandmothers back at the table.
We are praying over the placenta.
We are keeping them close at night.
We are burning the counterfeit and walking in the design.
This is not soft work.
It is a holy war"
- written upon the heart of almost every midwife

- author - Cardinal Birth Midwifery Service

🤎🤎👼🏼🤎🤎

09/25/2025

By Suzanne Arms and Jennifer Margulis(See their bios at the end.)Babies are most often conceived out of lo******ng, a wonderful and fun activity (as long as it’s mutually consensual) that may take place at home, in a hotel room, or in a private corne

09/14/2025

09/12/2025

Sweet gratitude from a current client thanks, Chelsey.

09/11/2025

How long does it take for us to make Birth better in America?

An excerpt from an interview with Marsden Wagner, MD, former director of Women's & Children's Health for the World Health Organization.

09/07/2025

09/07/2025

09/07/2025

09/07/2025